BRIEFLY.

Byline: Staff and Wire Reports

Golfing legend Palmer, 77, decides to retire from competition

Arnold Palmer tearfully said it was time to stop playing competitive golf after withdrawing from a Champions Tour event early in the first round in Spring, Texas.

Palmer, 77, hit two balls into the water on the fourth hole Friday, then said he was withdrawing because of a sore lower back. He continued with his threesome of Lee Trevino and John Mahaffey but did not keep score the rest of the round.

Palmer said he finished the round at the Administaff Small Business Classic because he owed it to his fans.

Annika Sorenstam nearly holed a sand wedge on the 18th hole for a tap-in birdie that salvaged a 1-under 71 and left her atop the leader board with Sophie Gustafson (70) and Paula Creamer (68) at the Samsung World Championship in Palm Desert.

D.A. Points trimmed another eight shots off par to open a two-stroke lead midway through the PGA Tour's Frys.com Open in Las Vegas.

Points shot a second-round 64 at TPC Summerlin to go with his opening 65 at the par-71 TPC Canyons course. At 14-under 129, he led Todd Fischer, Tom Pernice Jr. (UCLA) and Aaron Baddeley by twostrokes.

SOCCER: Former Italy and Cosmos star Giorgio Chinaglia, 59, is being sought by Italian authorities, who issued an arrest warrant for him and eight others on charges of extortion and insider trading at the Rome club Lazio.

The Mexican federation's national team committee announced it had whittled the list of candidates for national team coach to seven and planned to make a recommendation Nov. 18.

The list wasn't announced, but confirmed as a candidate was Necaxa coach Hugo Sanchez, Mexico's greatest star and a former Tricolores coach.

BASEBALL: Dodgers outfielder Marlon Anderson will be sidelined from offseason workouts for three weeks after surgery to remove bone chips from his right elbow.

-- Vincent Bonsignore

Johnny Callison, the rocket-armed right fielder for the Philadelphia Phillies who hit a bottom-of-the-ninth home run that won the 1964 All-Star game, has died. He was 67.

MOTOR SPORTS: Dave Blaney wound up the winner at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C., in a NASCAR Busch Series finish that included red flag stoppages for a scoring glitch and a crash by Carl Edwards and Casey Mears.